That Was NOT Part of the Plan! May/June 2017 TR *NEW* 12/1 *COMPLETE*

Catching way up...

The stairs are very wide and broken into 4 sets of 4 steps, with landings in between them. The ramp starts on one side and gets you down to the first landing, where you then have to walk alllllllll the way across to the other side, go down the ramp on the other side which gets you to the next landing then walk allllllll the way across to the other side again, and you repeat and repeat until you finally get to the bottom. Clearly whoever designed it has never pushed someone in a stroller or wheelchair before because it was a horrible design. Most times if we could, we’d just pick up the stroller and carry it up or down the steps.
Wow, that does seem really inefficient. Especially if the stairs were busy and you're trying to wheel someone back and forth across all the landings with people walking up/down.

It was about 20 minutes from getting in line until we finished the ride.
Not bad - we could never catch it at less than 45.

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:rotfl2: This picture just makes me laugh. I know that feeling, I think. :goodvibes

Their weight difference made it hard to push and gave me shoulder and neck pain at times from trying to keep it steering straight with both of them in it.
Huh, something I've never thought about before, but makes sense. :scratchin I had wondered why you weren't using a double on this trip.

But just as we were passing the Storybookland Canal Boats, there were a few people waiting to enter the queue and it looked like a CM was about to open it, so we stopped there. The park was open to day guests by now, and apparently this attraction isn’t open for Morning Magic, so it was really perfect timing that we passed when we did before there was a long line, and we were loaded on the first or second boat of the day!
Wow, great timing! :thumbsup2

But even just 15 minutes or so after opening, the lines were pretty congested already and didn’t look to be moving quickly at all. We went over to check out Goofy’s Playhouse instead, and got a fun surprise when we saw Pluto was in there helping kids go down the slide! DS thought this was fantastic.
Aw, that's adorable! :lovestruc

Cute bow! :cutie:

Then all of a sudden, I think it dawned on her and she looked at me and said, “Moana!” which led to some cute pictures.
So sweet! I love that she figured out she was meeting her idol. :love:

DD again was a bit shy, though she was very interested in waving goodbye, maybe to get away from him quicker?? Lol
Haha, could be. I remember a trip when Izzy was young and I was thinking the same thing. :rotfl:

We actually just got to see the movie this past weekend and we all absolutely loved it! It should have been the sequel to the first movie instead of the garbage that was Cars 2.
Agreed! ::yes::

In 2015 when we went again, it was closed down as they changed it to the Rollickin’ Roadsters. So we were excited to have something new to all of us in Cars Land to try.
I'm excited to ride something else new whenever we get back there!

When he came back, he had not only gotten diapers but had picked up some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream as well. We only felt a little bit guilty about eating that in our bedroom while the kids slept! Lol Then we got to bed early ourselves.
Haha, parent-on-vacation requirement! :goodvibes

Super cute photo!

Can't wait to hear what you guys thought about the new ride theme!
 
Great job sneaking a pic! Too bad Dustin missed out.

I know, he was so bummed!

That was really some great FP mojo to be able to get Guardians so early and grab RSR too!

Our strategy ended up working out VERY well for us! We never seemed to have an issued getting both FPs in the same day when we tried it.

Tim Robbins! How cool!

I love that pic of the kids in front of Boo's door- so precious!

Wow the FP line for Guardians was insane!!

Sounds like a pretty good morning so far! :)

It was cool to finally see a celebrity there since they seem to be at DL more frequently. I have always been on the lookout but this was the first time seeing one!

Thanks. One of my favorite photo ops there!

Everything about Guardians was insane! The lines stayed so long the entire time. I was actually thankful to have a toddler to be able to take advantage of rider swap. More rides without waiting in the crazy lines.

Wow, I imagined that the waits for Guardians was crazy, but I never imagined it'd be that stressful to get a FP. Glad luck was with you guys and you ended up with a good return time. Of course, now I'm curious to know how your experience on the ride was...

Getting a FP was quite the event, but luckily we came up with a decent strategy on our own since there wasn't really enough time to look at others' strategies before we were there ourselves.

Wow, that does seem really inefficient. Especially if the stairs were busy and you're trying to wheel someone back and forth across all the landings with people walking up/down.

It was so ridiculous!! Whoever came up with that design needs a sharp slap on the back of the head. lol Thankfully we never encountered it when it was super busy, but I can't even imagine trying to weave back and forth if it was.

Not bad - we could never catch it at less than 45.

After that first morning we never saw it less than 45!

:rotfl2: This picture just makes me laugh. I know that feeling, I think. :goodvibes

Haha I'm glad she eventually lightened up but that first morning was rough for her!

Huh, something I've never thought about before, but makes sense. :scratchin I had wondered why you weren't using a double on this trip.

If they were closer in size it wouldn't have been so bad I think. DS has just grown too much in the past year and the uneven weight distribution became way more evident on our last WDW trip. Our stroller situation seemed to work out pretty well for the most part this trip though, and DS did okay walking more than he has in the past. Good practice for Universal in 10 days when we won't have a stroller at all!

Wow, great timing! :thumbsup2

It was perfect!

Aw, that's adorable! :lovestruc

It was really cute and would have been a totally perfect character interaction had both kids been interested. Still cute for DS though.

Cute bow! :cutie:

Thanks!! I wish she would have left it on for more than 5 minutes at a time. lol Maybe when she is older and has more hair.

So sweet! I love that she figured out she was meeting her idol. :love:

It was so adorable! She loves Moana so much.

Haha, could be. I remember a trip when Izzy was young and I was thinking the same thing. :rotfl:

It seemed to be her go-to move when she was getting antsy around the characters lol

I'm excited to ride something else new whenever we get back there!

It was cool to finally be there for some new stuff instead of being there while everything was down and they prepared for new stuff.

Haha, parent-on-vacation requirement! :goodvibes
 
Day 8 Continued: Wednesday May 31st

When I left off, it was finally time to go ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout!!

The FP line was a little backed up, so we went over to the CM holding up the sign to indicate where the line started, and asked about getting a rider swap. He said we’d need to get one further up and said we’d be fine to get it without having to show DD to anyone. But of course, when we got up to the gates where they take your FP and I asked for a rider swap, the CM insisted she needed to see the too-short child. So I had to hurry and call DH to walk back over so she could see him and DD, which was kind of annoying, but we got the lanyard to exchange later for the rider swap.

As we walked through the line, DS ended up getting chatty with the older lady in front of us about the Guardians movie and about it being his first time on the ride.


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As we kept walking through the queue, the lady he had been chatting with started whispering with her husband and she kept looking back at us as she did, which I thought was odd. Then she asked me if I had any advantages to getting FPs, which I told her we didn’t. So she turns back to her husband who pulls out a REAM of paper FPs and tears off 6 and hands them to me!! They were able to be used on any ride at either park at any time for the rest of the day!! Talk about pixie dust!!! I couldn’t thank her enough! She said she and her husband get 24 of them every time they go to the parks, so she likes to gift the ones she can’t use to other people. It was so kind of her, and DS and I were ecstatic!

We got split up from them as we went into the pre-show area. I didn’t take any pics, but DH did when he rode later, so I’m going to add those in while I describe the ride so if you don’t want to know, I’m going to post right now that I’ll have SPOILERS and then post END OF SPOILERS if you want to scroll past it all really fast!

Here goes...

The FP queue goes through a garden of sorts, and then you get a glimpse of the Guardians on display and some of the Collector’s items.

Then you go into the same pre-show room as when it was TOT, only now instead of a library it’s Taneleer Tivan’s private office. It starts with a video of him welcoming you to his collection where he has recently added the Guardians of the Galaxy on display, but Rocket comes dropping in and takes over. He explains he has broken out but can’t get the other Guardians out because he can’t get past the bio scan since it needs to scan your hands to get in and he doesn’t have hands, obviously. So he breaks down the plan for you to help him break out the rest of the Guardians, then sends you on your way to get to the gantry lift. If you’re too close to the door, you may miss it when Rocket’s hand swings down and he grabs Peter’s Walkman!


You go through what used to be the boiler room queue, where they now have lots of things from his collection on display, including a Yeti from the Matterhorn, and you can see Rocket’s footprints in spilled paint all over some of the items.


Then you get onto the gantry lift and the ride starts. First Rocket takes over the controls and plugs in the Walkman, leading to the first randomized part of the ride, in that there are 6 different songs that can play at this point. The ride mechanism is mostly like the original TOT in that you are zooming up and down the elevator shaft and stopping in front of different screens.

The first stop is the control room, where Rocket blows everything up.

Then you go down to the level where the Guardians are, and this is the next part that is randomized. There are several different scenes of different Guardians escaping, so you never know what you’ll get.

You shoot down and zoom up to a second scene that is again random. Then you still go up to the very top where the doors open, and it can be hard to hear with people screaming and yelling during the ride, but you can hear Rocket say, “Is that Disneyland?? That doesn’t fit the theme!” which is pretty funny, then you shoot up and down again before stopping once more to see that the Guardians have all escaped and their escape vehicle is there to pick them up.

Then you drop one more time before the ride is over.

END OF SPOILERS

All in all, I absolutely LOVED this ride!!!! I was never a huge fan of the version of TOT they had there compared to WDW’s anyway, so it wasn’t a must-do for us when we were in Disneyland. But this is a huge upgrade in my opinion. It helps we are all fans of the Guardians too, and that it can be a different experience every time you ride.

However, DS was not as much of a fan. I had looked over at him after the first drop and he looked at me horrified and said, “How many more times is it going to do that?!” I had purposely neglected to tell him what the ride sequence was like because I thought if he knew too much, he would be too afraid to do it. And he had been so excited to ride that he hadn’t even asked me what it did anyway, so it wasn’t like I had lied. Lol He didn’t freak out or start crying or begging to get off or anything, but when we got off, he said he didn’t want to do it again. I told him how proud I was of him for trying it!


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While we had been riding, DH and DD had gone back and ridden Under the Sea again.

They came over to the exit of Guardians to find us once we were finished.

Continued in next post...
 
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Day 8 Continued: Wednesday May 31st


So once we were done and they came to meet us, DH went alone with his FP and picked up a second rider swap for us to hold onto.


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I took the kids back over to Smokejumpers for lunch because the kids were starting to get hungry. I got the three of us some lunch, but didn’t get anything for DH because I figured it would be cold by the time he came to meet us after the ride. But once he got there, the line for food had grown and he didn’t feel like waiting in it, so he didn’t get anything.

After the kids and I had finished eating, we decided to use a couple of the pixie dusted FPs to ride Soarin’ since it was right next to the restaurant.

DH and DS decided to ride first, grabbing a rider swap that we decided we would hang on to until later after our break.

DD and I were waiting for them at the benches near the exit.


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We decided to hang on to our rider swaps, extra FPs, and FPs for RSR until later in the day, and were ready to head out of the park for our break. On the way out of the park, though, we saw Minnie with a short wait so we decided to stop.


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We met Moana with DD in her Minnie shirt, so why not meet Minnie in her Moana shirt?!


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I walked straight back to the resort with DD to get her down for her nap. I moved her pack & play into our bedroom so she could sleep behind a closed door and we could have the rest of the unit to hang out in while she napped. DH and DS hung behind and stayed in Garden Walk for awhile. First they stopped at Johnny Rocket’s to get DH some lunch since he hadn’t eaten with us.

Then they spent some time checking out a few of the shops. There was a store with huge Star Wars displays that DS had been wanting to go inside, and also a magic shop.


DD got up from her nap around 3:20, and we got everything together to head back to the parks for the afternoon and evening. We had come up with a pretty decent plan for what we were going to do once we got back to DCA. We had a Soarin’ rider swap, 2 Guardians rider swaps, RSR FPs that we wanted to also grab a rider swap so both DH and I could get a ride with DS, plus 4 of the bonus FPs the woman had given us. We had our plan laid out of what order we would do everything, and we made the walk back over to the parks.

UP NEXT: None of This Was Part of the Plan
 


Great day! So far! Can't wait to hear what you do with your 4 bonus passes!! Woohoo!!!

Is DD a big Minnie fan? Was she thrilled? I think I'm most excited about my DD meeting Minnie! She LOVES Minnie!
 
As we kept walking through the queue, the lady he had been chatting with started whispering with her husband and she kept looking back at us as she did, which I thought was odd. Then she asked me if I had and advantages to getting FPs, which I told her we didn’t. So she turns back to her husband who pulls out a REAM of paper FPs and tears off 6 and hands them to me!! They were able to be used on any ride at either park at any time for the rest of the day!! Talk about pixie dust!!! I couldn’t thank her enough! She said she and her husband get 24 of them every time they go to the parks, so she likes to gift the ones she can’t use to other people. It was so kind of her, and DS and I were ecstatic!finished
So - not 100% sure but it seems like you ran into a Club 33 member. They get 24 a day. I suppose it could be something else as well, but that's a pretty good guess. The only thing is the ones we got from our friend were good for the 3 days, not just one, but that was in 2016 so maybe they've changed the rules since then.
 
Your kids are so adorable!!! I love that you were gifted the extra fast passes! That used to be fun to do at wdw prior to the magic band days. If we had extras we always found someone nice to give them to. I do love so many things about DL, and hope to go back some day
 


I bet you brushed up against DL VIP's with their "free" Club 33 FP's! Lucky score there!

That cracks me up that they joke about their own complaints in the script for Guardians! At least that means they heard the protest when they announced the switch in theming!
 
END OF SPOILERS
Yeah, I had to check the spoilers out. I have no idea if/when I'll get back out there so I definitely appreciated them! It looks like a fantastic upgrade to the ride!

Well, it looks like Minnie at least gets more love than Pluto did.

DD got up from her nap around 3:20, and we got everything together to head back to the parks for the afternoon and evening. We had come up with a pretty decent plan for what we were going to do once we got back to DCA. We had a Soarin’ rider swap, 2 Guardians rider swaps, RSR FPs that we wanted to also grab a rider swap so both DH and I could get a ride with DS, plus 4 of the bonus FPs the woman had given us. We had our plan laid out of what order we would do everything, and we made the walk back over to the parks.
That definitely makes it easier to plan an afternoon/evening when you have that many FP and Rider Swaps to use!
 
Wow! I wonder why that couple gets so many FPs everytime they go to the park! That's so nice that they gifted you some!

So I will admit I don't know much about Guardians of the Galaxy, but the queue area looks really cool. And the ride itself sounds fun! I'm sorry DS didn't enjoy it as much.

Adorable pics with Minnie!

SOunds like DH & DS had a nice afternoon together!

Can't wait to hear how the rest of the night goes!
 
While it was nice to have some relaxation after the hustle and bustle of the parks, this time with two kids, it was better to do Seattle first as it gave us several days to get over our jet lag and get acclimated to Pacific time, which is 2 hours behind our normal time.

This is an excellent idea!

The flight wasn’t too bad and was thankfully pretty short. DS was happy with the inflight entertainment (I think he watched Sing) and DD was a little restless but nowhere near as miserable as she’d been on our first flight. She even watched Moana a little bit on the iPad since DS wasn't using it.

Definitely sounds like a win to me!

Clearly whoever designed it has never pushed someone in a stroller or wheelchair before because it was a horrible design. Most times if we could, we’d just pick up the stroller and carry it up or down the steps.


That's incredibly inaccessible! I used to work for the special education authority for my region, and these kinds of things grind my gears!


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The view from our table


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Awesome view!!

DS had seen this photo op at Garden Walk the day before and had wanted to stop SO bad, but we waited to do it until this morning, though he was a little too short for it!


How cute is he!??

I had realized while waiting to get into the park that I had forgotten to take Dramamine, so I wasn’t eager to do anything spinning that might mess me up for the rest of the day.

Probably a good call...


Awesome picture!


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I’ll let you decide if DD liked this one or not! Lol

Oh no! Bless her little heart!

So since we were right there by Small World, we went on that instead.



I love the facade of small world at Disneyland!

Then we headed over to ride Autopia. DH and I were pretty excited to see before the trip that DD had just hit 32” so there would be a couple of rides with height restrictions that she would be able to do, including this one. Just as DS’s first height requirement ride in WDW was Tomorrowland Speedway, DD’s first in Disneyland was Autopia!


How cool! Big milestone for DD!

We went over to check out Goofy’s Playhouse instead, and got a fun surprise when we saw Pluto was in there helping kids go down the slide! DS thought this was fantastic.


How cool is this?!? Love free-roaming Pluto.

When the two of them came back to find us, DS’s face was red and tear streaked so I asked him if he had cried the whole time, but he said only in the line. He was so nervous to ride, but once they had gone on it, he loved it! So I asked him if he wanted to ride again, and he did, so he and I went on right away with our rider swap pass.

Man, that ride is so rough! But he really did love it. He had a blast!

Glad the tears didn't last! I still get ride anxiety sometimes. So great that he had fun!

DS is busy coloring and watching the last Harry Potter movie in preparation of our upcoming Universal trip in less than three weeks!

Yay!! So exciting!!


This is the cutest.


Awesome family photo! I love Moana.

He had a lot of fun in the cave parts of the queue, and at one point made me crack up laughing when he said, “Hey, Mom, come feel this. It feels like dried poop!” He is such a goofball. (That was a big contender for a TR title too!)

Oh my gosh, what a goof! He's hilarious!

Oh my gosh, how adorable is he?!


What an awesome outfit!


Another awesome family photo!

After you get your match, they give you a sticker with the one you matched, and then you get a free Avengers comic book. Plus they let you take photos at the Avengers backdrop they have there.


That's really neat. I'm trying to figure out now who I'd be, who Nathan would be, our family members, etc...

When he came back, he had not only gotten diapers but had picked up some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream as well. We only felt a little bit guilty about eating that in our bedroom while the kids slept! Lol Then we got to bed early ourselves.

Yum! Sometimes as a parent you gotta' do what you gotta' do!

That’s one of the things I love about Disneyland is the roaming characters that they don’t really have at WDW. DD was not a fan, but DS thought it was cool.


Yeah, that's something I'd really like to see. The only time I've ever seen anything like this at WDW is occasionally with the country bears. But I know it didn't used to be that way.

At 9 am, they took the rope down, and I took the kids over to Monsters Inc. Finally, Tim was far enough away from me that I felt ok snapping a quick photo for DH. He and group were heading in to meet Anna and Elsa.


Bahaha nice stalker picture skills! This reminds me of trying to get a picture of Joe Rohde. But how cool to see him!!

Then she asked me if I had and advantages to getting FPs, which I told her we didn’t. So she turns back to her husband who pulls out a REAM of paper FPs and tears off 6 and hands them to me!! They were able to be used on any ride at either park at any time for the rest of the day!! Talk about pixie dust!!! I couldn’t thank her enough! She said she and her husband get 24 of them every time they go to the parks, so she likes to gift the ones she can’t use to other people. It was so kind of her, and DS and I were ecstatic!

Oh my gosh!! How exciting and so kind of them!

He didn’t freak out or start crying or begging to get off or anything, but when we got off, he said he didn’t want to do it again. I told him how proud I was of him for trying it!

Good for him for giving it a shot. I think I'd agree with him, but I've never done ToT.
 
I don't know too much about Guardians of the Galaxy, but it sounds like the attraction was fun. I love when rides have different sequences, makes each turn seem new and fresh. But poor DS! Hope he wasn't too traumatized!

Holy Fastpasses! I wonder what you have to do warrant that many free passes every trip. Man oh man!
 
Well I'd had every intention of making a post before leaving for our Universal Orlando vacation but life just got away from me! Right now we are sitting at Orlando airport waiting to head home from a really fun and really magical Universal vacation with a little bit of Disney sprinkled in (because how could we not?!). Back to the grind of work and school tomorrow but I have a lot of the TR written ahead and DH managed to finish editing all of the photos before we left so hopefully there won't be any more long gaps in updates. Thanks for sticking with me!!
 
Great day! So far! Can't wait to hear what you do with your 4 bonus passes!! Woohoo!!!

Is DD a big Minnie fan? Was she thrilled? I think I'm most excited about my DD meeting Minnie! She LOVES Minnie!

It was an awesome start to the day, especially those bonus FPs! So unexpected, but really some amazing pixie dust.

She does really like Minnie, but she didn't seem to get as excited as I thought she would, I think because she was a little intimidated at their size. Hopefully your DD loves her as much in person!

So - not 100% sure but it seems like you ran into a Club 33 member. They get 24 a day. I suppose it could be something else as well, but that's a pretty good guess. The only thing is the ones we got from our friend were good for the 3 days, not just one, but that was in 2016 so maybe they've changed the rules since then.

When I did my TR podcast, the host did some research afterwards and said the same thing, so that's probably what it was. I was so shocked I didn't even think to ask her how she got so many FPs! That's really cool that the ones you got were good for 3 days! I wish these would have been, that would have been even better!

Your kids are so adorable!!! I love that you were gifted the extra fast passes! That used to be fun to do at wdw prior to the magic band days. If we had extras we always found someone nice to give them to. I do love so many things about DL, and hope to go back some day

Thank you so much!

Yes, we used to gift FPs all of the time. It was so fun to do the gifting or to be gifted back in the day! That is definitely one aspect of paper FPs I miss at WDW.

I bet you brushed up against DL VIP's with their "free" Club 33 FP's! Lucky score there!

That cracks me up that they joke about their own complaints in the script for Guardians! At least that means they heard the protest when they announced the switch in theming!

That's what it sounds like! I didn't do the research myself, but when I recorded the podcast TR with Kim at DIStracted Life, apparently she did some research after we talked because it was bugging her not to know why these people had so many and that was the conclusion she came up with also lol We were very lucky!

It was a great inclusion!! I love that they can laugh at themselves and acknowledge the complaints.

Yeah, I had to check the spoilers out. I have no idea if/when I'll get back out there so I definitely appreciated them! It looks like a fantastic upgrade to the ride!

Well, it looks like Minnie at least gets more love than Pluto did.

That definitely makes it easier to plan an afternoon/evening when you have that many FP and Rider Swaps to use!

I figured some people would be interested in seeing the photos and descriptions for that same reason. I totally loved it! Especially because I never thought ToT in DL was as good as WDW's version to begin with.

Minnie was definitely more well received than Pluto was!

Well, you would think so..... lol

Wow! I wonder why that couple gets so many FPs everytime they go to the park! That's so nice that they gifted you some!

So I will admit I don't know much about Guardians of the Galaxy, but the queue area looks really cool. And the ride itself sounds fun! I'm sorry DS didn't enjoy it as much.

Adorable pics with Minnie!

SOunds like DH & DS had a nice afternoon together!

Can't wait to hear how the rest of the night goes!

From what I've gotten in this thread, it seems like there's a good chance they were Club 33 members! Very cool! It was incredible that they gifted us with some, just for DS being chatty with them!

It was a shame for me that he didn't enjoy it more, but I was glad I got to experience it with him at least once. We are big Guardians fans in this house, so we loved the change.
 
This is an excellent idea!

It worked out so well! We were all so tired those first few nights trying to get acclimated to the time change, so I'm glad we were just relaxing with family on those days instead of powering through the parks.

Definitely sounds like a win to me!

After the terrible flight we'd had to Washington, a nice uneventful flight was just what we needed! Thank goodness.

That's incredibly inaccessible! I used to work for the special education authority for my region, and these kinds of things grind my gears!

It really infuriated me every time we had to walk up and down them. It makes me really angry for people in wheelchairs who don't have a choice but to use that terrible ramp setup!

Oh no! Bless her little heart!

I know, it was terrible how scared she was of everything the first few rides! I'm glad she warmed up eventually.

I love the facade of small world at Disneyland!

I do too! One day I'd love to see it decorated for Christmas!

How cool is this?!? Love free-roaming Pluto.

I love the free-roaming characters in Disneyland! It's fun to interact with them that way instead of just lining up and getting two minutes for a photo and autograph.

Glad the tears didn't last! I still get ride anxiety sometimes. So great that he had fun!

I feel bad pushing him to do new things sometimes, but I always honestly think he would enjoy them and I'm almost always right. I'm so glad that he ended up enjoying this one!

This is the cutest.

It was such a fun meet! It's adorable how much she loves Moana.

Oh my gosh, what a goof! He's hilarious!

He is definitely a goof! He makes us laugh all the time.

Another awesome family photo!

Thanks!

Yum! Sometimes as a parent you gotta' do what you gotta' do!

Amen, Sista!

Bahaha nice stalker picture skills! This reminds me of trying to get a picture of Joe Rohde. But how cool to see him!!

Haha I had to be super stealth to get that photo, but I just had to get something for DH since he couldn't be there. It was exciting to see a celebrity there for the first time!

Oh my gosh!! How exciting and so kind of them!

It was so totally exciting and unexpected!

Good for him for giving it a shot. I think I'd agree with him, but I've never done ToT.

I think it helped that he really didn't know at all what to expect, so he couldn't really be nervous about it. lol It was maybe a bad-mama moment on my part, but he didn't freak out so it ended up okay in the end.

I don't know too much about Guardians of the Galaxy, but it sounds like the attraction was fun. I love when rides have different sequences, makes each turn seem new and fresh. But poor DS! Hope he wasn't too traumatized!

Holy Fastpasses! I wonder what you have to do warrant that many free passes every trip. Man oh man!

He wasn't traumatized, thank goodness! Just stated very firmly that he didn't want to do it again. lol I was proud of him for trying it though. The attraction is definitely very fun and exciting with the randomized sequences element. The movies are really good if you ever get a chance to watch them. I was skeptical at first but DH convinced me to see the first one in theaters and it quickly became a family favorite.

RIGHT?! From what intel I have gathered in this thread and from the podcast host I recorded with, it sounds like they could have been Club 33 members!

Ohmygoodness, yay! :) Glad to hear that it sounds like you had a great time!

We definitely did! I can't wait to share it all once I can get the TR started.
 
Day 8 Continued: Wednesday May 31st

The first order of business was that DH and I were going to use up those Guardians rider swaps. I had asked DS a couple of times if he was sure he didn’t want to give it another try and he kept saying no, but as we got into the park, he said he would give it one more chance. I had been planning to go first, but decided to let DH and DS go so that DH would get a chance to ride with him. I took DD over to Bug’s Land so we would be close by when it was time to swap. I thought I scored when I saw Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train posted at a 60 minute wait but there was hardly anyone in the queue, so we got in line.

Just when it was almost our turn, some idiot that had been loaded on the train decided to jump out of the car, leading to the entire ride having to be shut down and turned back on, so they made everyone leave the line. Meanwhile, DH texted that he and DS were coming back to meet me because DS had dissolved into tears on the way to Mission Breakout and he didn’t want to ride again after all.

DH was a little annoyed that he had waited to say this until they were about to get in line, but once he had dropped DS off with me, he went over to use the swap by himself. I ended up taking the kids on Francis’ Ladybug Boogie, which DD was not a fan of at all, and then on Flik’s Flyers, which she actually really liked.

SPOILER ALERT: MORE PHOTOS!!


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END OF SPOILERS

We met up and continued over to Cars Land with a plan to use our FPs for RSR and pick up a rider swap so we could each ride with DS, taking DD on something nearby in the meantime.

However, when we got over there, the FP line was ENORMOUS! It came around the corner and went down the street past Ramon’s where a CM was standing with a sign to let everyone know it was the entrance to the FP line. We went to see if we could figure out what was going on and heard a CM telling everyone that the ride was down and they didn’t have an estimated time of when it would be back up. Those with a FP could come back anytime for the rest of the night to use it, but she warned us to expect it to be as long as it was right then for the rest of the night also. We were a little bit frustrated by this time, only because we had gone in with what seemed like a great plan to use FPs and rider swaps for the evening, and we had been thwarted at every turn. So we held on to our FPs and I went by myself to use my Guardians of the Galaxy rider swap while DH took the kids on Luigi’s yet again.


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I was a little disappointed (only a little) because I got the exact same ride sequence as I’d had earlier. But it was still just as fun!


This picture coming up is exactly why towards the end of the trip, I started thinking we should have gotten DD a backpack leash. She very rarely wanted to hold hands, so to try to avoid having to do so, she ended up like this a lot of the time.

Continued in next post...
 
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Day 8 Continued: Wednesday May 31st

I found them in Cars Land after my ride, and we saw RSR was back up. Although the FP line was indeed long as it had been before, we decided to bite the bullet and ride anyway, so DS and I went through first. We picked up a rider swap also, hoping to be able to use it later that evening. It took us about 25 minutes to use the FP, which wasn’t terrible, but not quite as “fast” as we would have liked for a FastPass.

When we came off of the ride, DH had taken DD to get something to eat, so he ordered something for us and we met him there.

DS and I ate quickly, then went next door to use our Soarin’ rider swap. We decided that DH and DS would use the RSR rider swap while DD and I made our way over to Disneyland, where we were planning to close out the night.


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Continued in next post...
 
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Day 8 Continued: Wednesday May 31st

Meanwhile, DD and I had made it across and the front of the park was kind of chaotic. Main Street was totally packed with people waiting for Main Street Electrical Parade. We had already decided we weren’t going to carve out time to wait for this parade during the trip. It’s one we have seen many times in WDW and it was still so new and exciting to everyone over at Disneyland that people were staking out spots hours before the parade. We weren’t interested in committing that much time to it. And I may have still been a bit bitter that we were missing the return of Paint the Night for the summer.

So instead, DD and I had made our way down Main Street and over to Fantasyland where we rode the Carousel together because it had a short line.


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When we finished riding, I checked with DH to see where they were, and they were almost into DL. Since we still had those extra FPs the woman had given us earlier, I told him to meet us over by Jungle Cruise and we could use them to all ride together. It wasn’t until I was over there that I realized…Jungle Cruise doesn’t have FP at Disneyland like it does at WDW. Yet ANOTHER hiccup in our plan that night! DS and I decided to use two of them to ride Indiana Jones since it was right there next to Jungle Cruise, but even with FP it took us awhile.

Meanwhile, DD and DH had a BLAST over at the Enchanted Tiki Room. Yet again, I missed DD having the time of her life in there, same as I missed DS having a great time in the Tiki Room on our first family trip to DL.

By the time we were done with our attractions, it was about time to go get a spot for the fireworks. We ended up ducking under a rope in front of the Jolly Holiday Bakery and caught the tail end of the parade as it was passing. Main Street looked completely packed, so we thought we were pretty lucky to have snagged a viewing spot.


Unfortunately, once the fireworks started, we realized we had ended up in a terrible spot. Even though we could see the castle pretty well, the fireworks were all going off mostly to the left of it and it was almost completely obscured by trees from our vantage point.


I was pretty disappointed that we could hardly see anything, especially considering it was a full fireworks show and not the quick one we had experienced a few years ago in the offseason. It also had lots of projections for almost every attraction in the park, so that was pretty cool and we could see most of that, at least. Unfortunately, with all of the nighttime entertainment being so late at night, we were pretty sure trying to do it again another night would be impossible.

When the show was over, we were able to avoid the mass chaos of people leaving by taking the backstage path they opened up for us behind the bakery. So at least we got out of the park quickly. It was a long and tiring walk back, but we got the kids bathed as quickly as possible and got everyone to bed by 11 pm.

This night in particular, with all of our FP/Rider swap mishaps down to the obstructed fireworks view, was the epitome of "That was NOT part of the plan!" But still a great day!

UP NEXT: A Not So Magic Morning
 
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Just got caught up on a few updates. Welcome back from your trip, by the way!

Very cool about the handful of magic fast passes!

Love all the pictures, especially Cars Land at night.

Sorry things didn't go according to plan, but glad you still managed to have a pretty good time.
 

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